Students Of Success

Dear Friend:

Don’t do it.

Don’t start your fundraising letters with “Dear Friend.”

After all, when was the last time you received a letter from
someone dear to you, addressing you as “Dear Friend?” Never,
right? The days of the Dear Friend letter are dead. So let’s
bury the Dear Friend letter together.

I heard recently of a chairman of the board of a national
charity who has given his charity millions of dollars and
hundreds of hours of his time, yet he still receives their
fundraising appeals addressing him as “Dear Friend.” Ouch.

Your fundraising letters are intended to make friends as well as
solicit funds. So don’t send form letters to make friends.
Friends write personal letters. Letters addressed to their
friends by name. My wife never sends me a letter that begins,
“Dear Friend.” Neither do my friends. And neither should you
when writing to your donors.

I realize that personalization costs more. I know that you save
money if you send everyone the same Dear Friend letter. You
don’t have to insert custom fields into your letter. You don’t
have to perform a time-consuming mail-merge. You don’t have to
match the addresses on your letters with the addresses on your
reply cards and mailing envelopes (assuming you are using
closed-face envelopes).

You can compare your costs for mailing a personalized letter
versus mailing a Dear Friend letter, and you’ll also find that
the Dear Friend letter is cheaper. But I’d like to suggest, and
so I will, that you are measuring the wrong thing.

Return on investment shouldn’t be your only criteria for
measuring the success of your fundraising letters. What about
donor loyalty? What about donor attrition? What about the
lifetime value of each donor? What about plain old courtesy?

Donors stop giving for any number of reasons, but at the top of
the list is feeling unappreciated. Think of that chairman of the
board that I mentioned a minute ago. Can’t you just hear him
saying to himself, as he receives yet another Dear Friend
appeal, “I have given this charity millions of dollars and
hundreds of hours of my time, and they treat me as though they
don’t even know my name”?

Yes, Dear Friend letters are expedient. But expedience is not
your only aim in running a successful fundraising letter
program. Robbing banks is also expedient, but it’s not right.
Using guilt as a motivator in your letters is also expedient. It
raises funds in the short term. But it’s not right. And starting
every letter with Dear Friend is more expedient than customizing
each letter, but it’s not the right thing to do.

You should bury the Dear Friend letter because it is impersonal
and rude. It alienates perfectly nice donors, people who will
continue to support your organization with their treasure, time
and talents if you will only treat them as partners and not as
automated bank machines. Addressing your donors by name makes
them feel special and appreciated.

At the Business Depot where I buy my office supplies, there is a
store clerk who always remembers my name. She serves hundreds of
customers. Yet when I approach the cash, she makes me feel like
I’m a special customer. I feel a little flattered every time.
Her name, by the way, is Allyson.

Specialists in customer service have long known that remembering
a customer’s name–and using it–is one of the most effective
ways (and free ways) to encourage repeat business, customer
loyalty and free word-of-mouth advertising. The same is just as
true in fundraising, although I have no empirical studies to
back that up.

Please don’t start your letters with Dear Friend. Donors take it
personally.

© 2005 Sharpe Copy Inc. You may reprint this
article online and in print provided the links remain live and
the content remains unaltered (including the “About the author”
message).

Introduction So you have your own website up and running
and you are getting plenty of visitors a day. You are spending
money on your domain name and your hosting and you want to make
up the costs? How can you do this? In this tutorial we will
guide you through successfully generating a residual income from
your website.

Getting Started Remember, not everyone will be able to
make money from their website. It must meet most of the
following requirements or you will not be accepted into most
advertising networks:

* It needs to look reasonably professional or at least not
tacky. * It needs to have some original content, not just spammy
keyword pages. * It needs to attract a good handful of visitors
each day. * It is preferable not to be hosted on a free host
(but not required). * It should have its own proper domain name.
* The pages should load quickly. * Navigation should be easy and
painless. * Clear contact links should be available on each page.

You meet the requirements? Good, now its time to get stuck in!

The Different Types of Ads

There are 3 different types of ads:

1. CPM - Cost per thousand impressions (from the Latin, M =
1000) 2. CPC - Cost per click on an ad 3. CPA - Cost per action
- every signup or purchase

CPM (Cost per thousand) CPM offers tend not to pay very
well because they may not be successful for the advertiser,
however, they do guarantee the publisher (you!) income if you
know the amount of traffic you receive.

CPC (Cost per click) CPC advertising has worked well for
our site, the google ads at the top of most page pay us well for
each and every unique click. They generally pay between $0 and
$1.50 which can work out very beneficially. Cost per click is
liked by advertisers because it does not cost them too much and
they get traffic, and publishers because a signup is not
necessary for income to be generated.

CPA (Cost per action) This tends to be the favourite of
advertisers, they only pay when a signup or purchase is made,
good if used for a targeted audience.

Companies we recommend: Allposters.c
om - A fantastic opportunity to earn loads of money with a
25-30% commission. Google Adsense - Almost
all sites are accepted and the payout is pretty good. Reve
nue Pilot - Another good advertising company with loads of
customizable add formats. Maxbounty<
/a> - Another good CPA company - plenty of ads to choose from
and excellent payouts.

It is important to display ads which are relevant to your
website because otherwise your visitors will not be interested
in the ads. For example, if you run a games website, displaying
ads to dancing sites will probably not work very well for you.

Do not overload your visitors with ads. You should try and avoid
popups as visitors tend not to be impressed by them. With all
the toolbars and visitors closing popups as soon as they open,
they are largely ineffective.

Try a range of different solutions, see what works for you and
your site, and watch the checks roll in! We hope this tutorial
has helped you! Good luck!

Imagine you have been trying all kinds of remedies and various exercises on losing weight and they seem not to work on you. You kind of think that your body does not respond to these techniques you have been applying and you have been having sleepless nights always wondering how best you can do it in order to lose weight. To some people losing weight is a major issue and it may cause depression, anxiety and even disturb your social life. There are various techniques which can be considered when exercising to lose weight and these work well. Some techniques work very fast and results can be noticed within a few weeks and these are the use of supplements such as fat burners, sliming tablets which are used during exercises.

The use of natural remedies during exercises is very effective. Having enough rest and eating a balanced diet can also reduce weight during exercises as this helps overcome the excess of fat deposit. Visiting a gym is highly recommended, also various exercise equipments are available and an instructor is available to help you during your exercises. The more you exercise is the more you will get positive results as long you are doing the exercises properly.

More sport and exercise tips

Follow these 10 “laws” of fat loss and you are guaranteed a leaner physique. Think about it; not too many things in life are guaranteed. Often times we have to put a lot of work into something without knowing whether our effort will pay off in the end. This is just part of life, but with fat loss we know we will be successful as long as we have a solid plan in place and as long as we stick to that plan. The sticking to it is usually the part we have the most trouble with. It can be difficult to stay on a fat loss eating plan, but it becomes a little easier when you consistently remind yourself that a leaner you is right around the corner if you just stick with it. You are probably already familiar with some of these laws. If that is the case then now it is just a matter of bringing it all together and DOING IT!

1) You must create a slight calorie deficit in order to lose body fat. The most effective way to do this is to exercise and control the number of calories you ingest each day. Get use to knowing the number of calories that are contained in everything you eat. This is made easy for us with nutrition labels on store bought food and nutritional information sheets available at most fast food restaurants.

2) You must feed your body smaller meals every 2-3 hours throughout the day. Eating this way compared to the normal 3 meals a day increases your metabolic rate significantly. It also prevents you from ever getting too hungry, which is when you are most likely to go off of your nutrition plan and consume too many calories.

3) Every one of your small meals throughout the day should contain a source of high quality protein, carbohydrates, and “good” fat, with the exception of post workout meals, which should consist of fast digesting carbohydrates and proteins and very little or no fat. High quality meal replacements are a great way to supplement several of your meals during the day.

4) Drink enough water every single day. Having adequate water enables your body to function properly, including its ability to burn fat. Water also flushes toxins and impurities from the body.

5) Always incorporate weight training and cardiovascular exercise into your fat loss nutrition plan.

6) Use the power of vegetables to help you reach your goals. Vegetables are the most nutrient dense food around meaning that you can eat a tremendous quantity of vegetables and consume very few calories. The high fiber content of vegetables also causes your body to work very hard just to digest the vegetables, which means that the calories you do consume are all burned up just in the digestion process. So, in turn, vegetables are negative calories! If you get hungry you can always add more vegetables with no fear of hurting your fat loss efforts (Fried okra does not count!)

7) Pick a nutrition plan that you can live with and that you have faith in. If you cannot consistently follow a nutritional program then you will never have success with it. A good rule to remember is that any “diet” that you eventually come off of will fail in the long run. To have success you must incorporate a nutritional program that you can follow for the rest of your life. This requires a lifestyle change and commitment on your part. It is also important that you have faith and confidence in your fat loss nutrition program. If you do not truly believe that something is going to work for you, then you will not stick with it.

“Cheat” if you want to, but know the consequences of excessive overindulgence. Having a “cheat” day or cheat meal every week or every two week, in which you allow yourself to eat whatever food you are craving, is a great way to help you stick with your nutritional program. “Cheat” days give us a mental break and allow us to enjoy some of our favorite foods so that we do not feel deprived. However, don’t fool yourself into thinking that your body “needs” these cheat days, and be careful of the quantity of food you eat on your cheat day. If your cheat meal turns into a full day of pigging-out on everything in sight then you can easily undo all of the hard work you put in the week before.

9) Keep your eye on the prize. Eating to lose body fat is tough. I am not going to lie and say it isn’t. There will undoubtedly be times when you feel like giving up and accepting the fact that you can never achieve your ideal physique and level of health and fitness. When you feel like this take a couple of minutes to remind yourself exactly why you are doing it. Think of how awesome it is going to feel when you finally do reach your goals. Trust me, when you achieve your fat loss goals and reach a new level of health and fitness, it will be well-worth the sacrifice you had to make along the way.

10) Be consistent and never give up. Permanent fat loss requires a lifelong commitment to eating healthier and exercising. Don’t become frustrated or give up if you do not seem to be reaching your goals as quickly as you would like. Achieving the body and level of fitness you desire takes time and consistency. If you mess up on your nutrition plan don’t beat yourself up. Instead, get right back to it and keep making progress because with enough determination and desire you WILL eventually get there.

© Russ Yeager’s Health and Fitness 2006 All rights reserved. Use of this article is permitted for your newsletter, website, or other publication as long as the content is not altered.

Your Ten Step Debt Elimination System

The simplest systems are generally the best.
This adage applies to debt elimination too.
Over the years, I have evaluated many systems.
Let me introduce you to the best one.

The Simple, yet Effective, Idiot proof, Iron Clad, No Holds
Barred, Debt Elimination system, Devoid Of Any Fine Print.

Just take the following steps and your goal of debt elimination will be achieved.

1.) Check the recorded expenses for the last 12 months. One year
is a sufficient period for checking personal experience. Check
all recorded expenses, bank statements, cancelled checks,
credit card statements, or whatever other record you have. For
cash expenses, carry a small notebook with you for a few weeks
and note down all expenses, however minor it may seem to be.
At the end of the day, you will be amazed to see a molehill
becoming a mountain. I have gone through this. It is a pain really.

2.) Find out the total monthly expense, by dividing the recorded
expenses by 12 and adding the cash expenses adjusted for a month.

3.) Make a list of your debts. Do not forget to include mortgage.
Call your creditor if you do not have this information handy.
(However, it pays to keep the information handy.)

4.) Make a list of minimum payments on your debts that you have
to make every month. Assume that the total comes to $2000
every month.

5.) Find out debt remaining repayment period assuming minimum
installment every month.

6.) Rank your debts on the number of months for repayment in
ascending order. That means, the debt with the smallest number
of months remaining for repayment, is the first number. Go on
until the last debt.

7.) Make a priority list for repayment of your debts.
Your highest priority debt should be the one that you can
pay off in the minimum number of months.
Your lowest priority debt is the one that will take you the maximum number of months.
Perhaps this will probably be your mortgage on your home.

8.) In step # 4. you have calculated your minimum repayment as
$2000. Make up your mind to increase this by 10%.

9.) To have an additional $200 for repayment, reduce $200 from
your expenses, and reserve it for additional debt repayment.
Think of all the possible ways to do this. Make a determined
effort and most likely you will exceed your target of $200.

10.) Use this additional $200 for repayment of first priority debt. If you were paying $100 previously, now you will be paying $300. This $300 will have a cascading effect on your repayment as soon as the first debt is paid off. You will now have $300 additional for repayment in place of $200 that you had from your savings.

This way you will be debt free in a few years. The beauty of this system is that it all came from just $200 that you have saved in years of your resolve to be debt free.

When you have paid off the final debt, you will find that you have a much larger amount in hand to spend than your original $200 a month that you saved initially from your expenses.

The cascading effect of your saving $200 will be
evident in coming years.

Not only will you be just debt free in few years, but also will have built a substantial base on which to build up your dreams. All this for just $200 per month of your initial saving efforts.

Robert Singleton offers more information on, How to Restore Your Credit, Pay Off All Your Debts and Have Enough Money in the Bank to Put an End to the Stress Caused by Your Finances. For more information, and other valuable resources, visit this site: http://www.SupremeUpTime.com
and scroll down to “Other Resources”. Click on “Other Resources”.

Copyright Robert Singleton. All rights reserved.

A pair of well crafted diamond earrings gives a touch of
elegance to your countenance. What gave diamond earrings an edge
over other precious stone earring is it its versatile shapes,
color and designs. Investing in fine pair of diamond earring is
a good idea, but don’t get despaired with the no. of available
options. The choice you have the better you chose. Your first
pair of Diamond Earrings You can gift yourself a diamond as a
reward of your hard work and to mark your accomplishments. Few
things you need to decide before entering the shop of diamond
jewelry. First, what is your style of diamond earring a hoop,
stud or drop earring? Although these choices are just tip of the
iceberg, in your hunt you will find intricate patterns fixed
with a cluster diamonds but solitaire diamond earrings are one
if the most popular style .

Stud earrings consist of a single stone in a stud setting you
can fix any shape of the diamond (i.e. round, princess, pear,
marquise, etc.) and fix it in the preferred metal (i.e.
platinum, white gold, yellow gold, etc.). If you are looking for
a simpler pattern than go for a Drop earring, it can give
stunning looks if fixed with more than one diamond (a drop
earring with 3 stones) and they may involve intricate styles of
settings.

If you like hoop earrings, J-Hoop or complete hoop is popular
choice but the use of the diamonds to line the hoop is
important. Choosing right metal is also important for your
diamond hoop earrings as the diamonds are lined between two
prominent bands of preferable of platinum, white gold, yellow
gold or silver.

No every one can shell out his/her account on diamonds .it is
better to draw a line for your diamond shopping otherwise you’ll
end up in paying huge interest. It is better to have a clear
picture about your budget; it will make easier to decide which
pair of earrings is best for you. A diamond earring gives a
dazzling looks to a bride and make her feel like queen on that
special day.

for more information on diamond earrings, visit:
http://www.preciousglow.com